


Changes

by falsteloj



Category: Midsomer Murders
Genre: Aftermath of a Case, Gen, Police
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-17
Updated: 2012-09-17
Packaged: 2017-11-14 10:02:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 910
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/514056
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/falsteloj/pseuds/falsteloj
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bookverse inspired piece written after I read 'A Place of Safety'.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Changes

Barnaby let his gaze sweep the briefing room, trying to relay the seriousness of the situation through nothing but eye contact, until; finally, his gaze fell on the pale taut face of his sergeant.

He looked away. 

Taking this as a sign the troops trickled out, some with the strong set to their shoulders of determination. Others with the slumped posture of somebody who knows it’s already too late.

He couldn’t help but recognise the feeling.

It had already been three days and with no reliable sightings and fewer leads the odds were stacked against Troy ever laying eyes on his daughter again.

* * *

Joyce peered at her reflection in the mirror and fussed with her hair. It had been a long and harrowing day; she had gone round to sit with Maureen feeling she really ought to do something for the wife of the man who over the years had become almost family. But, really, what could she possibly do?

What could you say to a woman whose child has been missing for over 74 hours with not even a few stills of grainy CCTV footage as evidence of her whereabouts?  

Her heart went out to Gavin. Not only had he lost his daughter, it looked like he was going to lose his wife too. When she’d turned up on the doorstep unannounced, the door had been opened by a tall good looking man who, if pushed, she’d say was a good few years younger than Gavin. Maureen had sobbed on her shoulder about how she and Talisa Leanne had been planning to leave Midsomer, leave Troy, and make a new life with Steve. How he was a businessman on the up, how he didn’t treat her like a doormat, how good he was with children and how could she live if they didn’t find her daughter. Alive. 

Joyce hadn’t known what to say, just let the younger woman vent her grief and thought, with a slight twinge of guilty disloyalty, how this must have devastated Gavin. He doted on the girl, even if he’d never been anything approaching a model husband.

She sighed at the thought of husbands. Her hands wandered to toy with the mirror Tom had bought her for their last wedding anniversary. It was beautiful and she had been touched, moved even by the thought he’d put into it. Still, idly tracing the pattern of the embossed silver, she couldn’t help but wonder how different life might have been had she given into temptation all those years ago, like Maureen. Taking one last glance at her aged reflection she put the hand mirror back and went downstairs to put tea on.

It was no use thinking of the past.

* * *

Troy slumped onto the unwelcoming slats of the bench, his legs refusing to support him any longer. He couldn’t imagine a worse day, nothing came close. Not even seeing the stinking, barely recognisable remains of that old guy they’d once dregged from the canal could have prepared him for the sick dread in his stomach as George had lifted the white sheet from the slight form beneath. He didn’t know what the twist of emotion in his gut had been when he’d taken in the still lifeless features of the girl and realised it wasn’t Talisa Leanne.

It hadn’t felt like relief.

It was the not knowing that made it so unbearable, not knowing where she was, if she were even still alive. He couldn’t contain a sob at the thought. And, even, if they did find her Maureen was going to take her away, run off with Steve to some place in Wales he couldn’t even pronounce.

He’d dreamt last night, twisting and turning on their narrow sofa, of Talisa Leanne’s safe return. Of the desk sergeant walking her over by the hand; she’d been wearing a pink dress festooned with ribbons, the kind Maureen thought were museum pieces and would never dress her in. Letting go of the sergeant’s loose grip she’d walked towards him… and then straight past. Running to hug him and call him “daddy”.

He wouldn’t stand for it, Steve might have his wife but he wouldn’t get his grubby claws into his little girl.

Realising the thought was pointless as he might never even see Talisa Leanne again, he gave in and sobbed.

* * *

The sight hit Barnaby, if not in his heart, then somewhere pretty close. Troy was curled in on himself face hidden in his hands but the shuddering of his shoulders and the strangled sobs he couldn’t muffle gave it all away. He strode over without thinking it through, just went straight to his sergeant and wrapped an arm around his shoulders.

Troy looked up at him curiously through tear brimmed eyes, gasping in jerky lungfuls of air in an attempt at composure he couldn’t maintain.

Barnaby had always done his best to avoid getting personal with cases but, when it was your own sergeant’s daughter that had gone missing, when you had to drive him to the morgue to identify a body, a body he thanked God hadn’t been Talisa Leanne’s, it was impossible to maintain professional distance. The staring lifeless eyes of the as yet unidentified girl haunted him and, once again, acting on instinct he pulled Troy’s sobbing form to his chest. Stroking comforting circles on his back he knew that no matter what the outcome of this investigation, nothing would ever be the same again.

**Author's Note:**

> As ever, feel free to chat / hit me with prompts over on Tumblr [@serenwib](http://serenwib.tumblr.com/) or Twitter [@falsteloj](https://twitter.com/falsteloj). :)


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